That talking point didn’t get a lot of traction during the 2018 election cycle, but it’s hard to blame them for keeping at it. As the trade war drags on there are real economic impacts for North Dakotans and Americans generally.

But here’s the thing: If Democrats are so concerned about trade, why are they only talking about China?

If Democrats are so concerned about trade, why are they only talking about China?

The Trump administration has hammered out a strong trade deal with Canada and Mexico called the USMCA. It has bipartisan support. North Dakota’s all-Republican federal delegation – Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer along with Congressman Kelly Armstrong – support ratification of the deal. Former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, is literally collecting a pay check to promote the deal.

Yet the Democrat-controlled House is a hold up. The Trump administration hasn’t submitted the treaty to Congress yet because, once they do so, it starts the clock counting on a timeline toward a sixty-day deadline.

That North Dakota’s Democrats would be focused on the trade war with China, while relatively silent on ratification of the USMCA which would represent a strong new trade agreement with North Dakota’s two largest export markets, makes it seem like their talking points are driven more by considerations which are political more than economic.